From: Steve Godfrey (sgodfrey@irk.ru)
Date: Sat Dec 30 2000 - 22:09:52 EST
Dear Sirs,
Does the presence of the definite article in John 21:17 suggest that John
is drawing attention to what follows, thus intending a distinction between
AGAPAO and PHILEO?
Two of the authorities I have available, Morris and Carson, say
emphatically not. However, neither of them addresses the function of the
article in this verse, which may be important. My current deliberations
appear below.
Sincerely,
Steve Godfrey
Irkutsk, Siberia
--
But what about that article?
And yet, a problem remains. Why the article in Jesus’ third question?
Neither Temple, Morris, nor Carson note whether the article TO before
TRITON has a special role to play. This article only appears in the third
question. Based on BDF, this usage of the article is to mark a quotation,
or to mark the beginning of a phrase for further consideration. BDF cites
Matt. 19:18 as an example(1):
NIV Matthew 19:18 "Which ones?" the man inquired. Jesus
replied TO, "'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do
not steal, do not give false testimony,
John may be using the article in this third question to draw attention to
the change in verbs. To translate:
He says to him this the third time: “Simon Son of John, do you
PHILEO me? Peter was grieved because he said to him the third
time, “Do you PHILEO me?” He replied, Lord, you ascertain all
things, you know that I PHILEO you. Jesus replies, “Feed my
sheep.”
The article was not used in the previous two quotations of this section,
so it is unlikely that its only function in the third quotation is merely
to mark the start of the quotation. This is of course to build a case
merely on the presence of an article, which might seem slim grounds. This
theory would carry more weight if there was corroborating evidence for a
distinction between ‘phileo’ and ‘agapaw’ elsewhere in John’s writings.
[1] BDF, &267.
---
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